How can I set custom validation error messages from a controller, in Laravel 8?

I am working on a registration form consisting with Laravel 8 and Sanctum.

I have this piece of code in the AuthController to validate the form fields:

public function register(Request $request) {
    $fields = $request->validate([
        'first_name' => 'required|string,',
        'last_name' => 'required|string',
        'email' => 'required|string|unique:users,email',
        'password' => 'required|string|confirmed',
        'accept' => 'accepted',
    ]);

    // More code here

}

I want to display more user-friendly validation error messages.

Rather than changing the validation.php file (resources\lang\en\validation.php), I want to change the set them for the registration form only, in the method above.

The problem

As someone that has used Codeigniter for a long time, I had, in Codeigniter, the posibility to do just that:

  $this->form_validation->set_rules('first_name', 'First name', 'required', array('required' => 'The "First name" field is required'));

I was unable to do something similar in Laravel 8.

How do I get the desired result in Laravel 8?

>Solution :

Maybe this can work for ya.

    $rules = [
        'first_name' => 'required|string,',
        'last_name' => 'required|string',
        'email' => 'required|string|unique:users,email',
        'password' => 'required|string|confirmed',
        'accept' => 'accepted'
    ];

    $customMessages = [
        'required' => 'The :attribute field is required.'
    ];

    $this->validate($request, $rules, $customMessages);

Also check out the laravel customizing error messages documentation.